Negative Visualisation

The law of attraction is a way of thinking positively towards attracting the things you want…

Stuff like –
A nice house
A nice Car
Lots of money
Your dream partner
A better body
Unicorns and Fairys…

However just sitting there and visualising won’t bring these things to you and if and when you do get them they won’t make you happy (well they might for a short period – then you will visualise bigger and better things)

The law of attraction can also make you resent the things you already have and instead of this happy life in your head, you’re left miserable in real life… Even though you could be perfectly happy,

If thinking positively could potentially make me miserable why would I think negatively –

Well, you could imagine all the ways your house could get broken into or ways your business might fail.

With this type of negative thinking, you could protect yourself from those negative things from happening…

Protect not completely stop.

Bad things are going to happen at some point in our life no matter how hard you picture all the lights being green on the way to work, or that as soon as you open shop customers are going to come flooding in and you will be a millionaire…

Another type of negative visualisation then is to imagine bad stuff happening to us then…

“Nothing happens to the wise man against his expectation, nor do all things turn out for him as he wished but as he reckoned—and above all he reckoned that something could block his plans.” – Seneca

“When you first rise in the morning tell yourself: I will encounter busybodies, ingrates, egomaniacs, liars, the jealous and cranks.’ Marcus Aurelius

When you prepare yourself for bad things like ‘busybodies and cranks’ – you won’t be shocked or offended when you face them – Like when you catch your boss in a bad mood and she takes it out on you…

You know its nothing personal and you were prepared ‘Nothing happens to the wise man against his expectation’

The problem with the law of attraction is if you’re expecting everything to be glitter and rainbows you going to be hit with thunder and lighting.

I used to practice the law of attraction all the time – this year I’ve started two businesses and it’s gone nothing like I had hoped or imagined…

I was supposed to be in control of 10 properties and my gym was supposed to have 3 staff members by now, I was also supposed to be driving a white BMW M4…

These are all variables outside of my control – because no matter how hard you visualisation positively Life happens and that’s ok as long as you are prepared for it.

Instead of driving a white M4 – My car got written off and I either walk or catch the train.

When trying to fill the rooms in my property – I prepare myself in the morning for people not turning up to the viewings, The trains getting cancelled etc.

It still has a little sting sometimes but not as much as it would if I was expecting to ride a unicorn through rainbows to get their…

Another Negative visualisation technique – Which is my favourite one is Memento Mori (Remember death) – Today could be your last day alive…

Reminding yourself of this often lets you appreciate the stuff you would normally take for granted…

Back to my train example – When im sat on the train I look at other people and their heads are normally down on their phones (Now if their getting work done, Im a big fan of Netime) but the majority are on social media…

When you remember that today could be your last – other peoples SM posts are not important (their probably not anyway) and you want to appreciate what’s around you, Looking through the windows of the train you see some wonderful scenery that you just don’t see on Facebook…

The backdrop of the mountains on a clear day – with the sunlight brightening up the green fields with the horses playing, Or crossing over a lake with the ducks sitting there… Little things that you don’t take notice of because you assume you have a tomorrow.

Which leads into my last point…

In Part 1 – I discussed that imaging things like a faster car, bigger house or your partner buying you flowers would eventually lead you to take what you already have for granted and start to resent them…

Negative visualisation will allow you to appreciate what you already have…

Lets say you want your partner to buy you flowers or make you a brew in the morning, Your so fixated on ‘trying to attract’ them into doing whatever it is you want them to do and when they don’t you start to get upset with them and because all your focus is on trying to get them to by you flowers – you forget what they already do for you, because you’ve become accustomed to that and take it for granted…

But what if today was your last or worse their last day and you have to live with knowing that you took them for granted and wanted more from them.

this type of negative visualisation works on family and friends, pets etc… it’s a fact of life that we’re all going to die, So stop living like you and everyone around you is going to live forever…

Visualising losing a loved one sounds morbid at first – but if the worst did happen would you want to live the thought that you took them for granted everyday or that you appreciated every day you got to spend with them.

Example – assuming you’re going to live forever when your sat with your family you sat scrolling through your phone, and you’re not really sat with your family, your in the room but you might as well not be.

Knowing that today could be yours or their last day well you won’t want to waist that by scrolling through your phone…

Another negative visualisation technique to help you appreciate what you already have is

Bad things could happen for you, But even if it didn’t practice misfortune has more benefits than just being prepared for poverty –

It makes you more resilient to stressful situations – sometimes even stress-free because you know you’ve lived through worse…

You appreciate what you have more – Your car may make a funny noise or not have a specific new feature… But it’s not bad compared to walking everywhere or relying on the trains not to be cancelled (Cough, Cough Northern)

And you learn to have more self-control – You don’t really need that 3rd coffee, you don’t need to buy those new shoes to make you happy, because you know that you can be happy even in tough times…

How to practice misfortune…

You could pretend that your car has been repossessed and walk everywhere for a couple of days.

(Another it could happen to you moment – My car got hit by an Arctic truck and dragged along the motorway – What are the chances of that happening but it did – and now I’m walking everywhere)

You could pretend that you’ve lost your job and that you have a very strict budget of ‘X’ Amount per month – Buying the cheapest foods and only spending when you really have to

Have cold showers for a week because your hot water has been turned off

These are just a few ways you can practice misfortune but Don’t just think about them, but live them. And do it now, while things are good.